I was a master fig-leaf maker. For years, I played church as well as anyone in the building. I knew when to raise my hand, when to nod, and when to say amen. On the outside, I was covered. On the inside, I was stitching leaves together as fast as I could, hoping no one got close enough to see what I was hiding. It wasn't until 2018 that I finally stopped sewing and put both feet down with God. I tell you that so you know I'm not preaching down at anyone. I lived in those leaves a long time.
Go back to the garden with me. The moment Adam and Eve sinned, the very first thing they did was cover themselves. "They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings" (Genesis 3:7, NKJV). Notice who did the sewing. They did. The first instinct of shame is always to manufacture our own covering, to fix ourselves up enough to stand being seen. We have been making fig leaves ever since.
Here is what wrecked me this week. God could have ended that chapter with the sentence. They sinned, they hid, judgment came, and He sent them out. That would have been just. But before He opened the door, before the exile, He knelt. "Also for Adam and his wife the LORD God made tunics of skin, and clothed them" (Genesis 3:21, NKJV). He took off what they had made and put on what He provided. Their leaves weren't enough. They never are. So the Father covered them Himself.
Sit in the timing of that. They had disobeyed Him. They had listened to the serpent rather than to their own God. They had broken His heart, and make no mistake, every time we sin, we still break it. And His response, in the very moment of judgment, was to clothe them. He didn't cover their shame because they deserved it. He covered it because that is who He is. Faithful when we are faithless. Providing in the midst of the consequence.
And yes, He still sent them out of the garden. The exile was real. But hear me carefully: they did not walk out of Eden wearing leaves they stitched themselves. They walked out covered by their Father. The consequence didn't disappear. The covering went with them into it. That is the whole point I need you to see.
So let me ask you what I had to ask myself. Where are you still sewing? You've been in church a while. You've heard the sermons, sat through the studies, and you still wrestle with the same sin. Somewhere along the way, you started believing God walked off and left you in it. He didn't. You're so busy stitching your own covering that you can't feel His presence. He is not standing at a distance, waiting for you to get clean enough. He is kneeling with something better than anything you can make, waiting for you to stop sewing long enough to let Him clothe you.
He is a gentleman. He will not rip the leaves out of your hands. If you want to keep making your own, you can, and some of us have spent years doing exactly that. But He is waiting, eager and patient, for you to finally say it: Lord, I'm done. Clothe me. Do whatever You have to do. And no matter how long it took you to get there, He will.
Stop making your own fig leaves. Let the Father be your Father.
Pastor Keith